Catherine Zeta-Jones plays first ever Welsh role in new series Kill Jackie

Catherine Zeta-Jones is bringing her real accent and her real hometown to the screen for the first time, headlining a new Prime Video series that marks her first Welsh-accented role and her first project filmed in Wales.

In Kill Jackie, the Mumbles-born actress plays Jackie Price, a former cocaine dealer being hunted by hitmen, and she says the character is drawn directly from people she grew up around back home. 

"I played on people I know in Wales, people who are comedic and the accent makes it funny and real and true, but the character comes from a tough side of Swansea, which we do have as well," she said.

The series is adapted from The Price You Pay, a novel originally set in the U.S. and centered on a male protagonist named Jack. 

Zeta-Jones and her team reimagined the character as a woman for the adaptation, retaining much of the original character's quirkiness and unpredictability. 

She was adamant from the start that the role be distinctly Welsh. 

"I told my creative team, I want to play her Welsh. And they went OK," she told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales. 

"For many reasons. One, I've never played real Welsh Swansea ever, never shot in Wales and I think it would ground me in her character and add nuances that I would know. I'm so glad I did it because she's such a great character and I just wanted her to be Welsh."

Zeta-Jones, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, revealed she personally contributed the idea for one of the show's more memorable action beats, a hidden weapons cache concealed behind Andy Warhol-style prints of fellow Welsh icon Tom Jones. 

"Jackie has installed this high-tech security system behind these Andy Warhol style prints of Tom Jones. 

They lift up and out come very dangerous machine-guns that do the bad guys in," she explained. 

"That was my contribution to the scene." 

She admitted she wasn't sure whether Jones himself was even aware of his role in the moment, joking that she'd need to text him about it, and predicted he'd appreciate the tie-in given the tone of her character. 

"I think because I'm playing such a badass, I think he's going to love that we used his song in that particular moment in the show."

The show, premiering October 2, has already drawn praise from fans for Zeta-Jones's use of her natural accent, with one viewer commenting they loved hearing the "queen of Wales sounding Welsh." 

Speaking on BBC Woman's Hour, Zeta-Jones said she was genuinely surprised by how many fans picked up on the detail, saying it made her "very happy." 

She's spoken previously about her deep, enduring connection to Wales, saying that in her heart she "never really left."